Saturday, November 06, 2004

Do you remember the first time your heart skipped a beat? May be your heart had skipped its first beat during an important examination or while seeing a beautiful person for the first time. I remember mine when I was young, studying in grade three. Being a brilliant student, I was sitting in my class room’s floor over Tat-Patti in first row. It was neither due to examination anxiety, and obviously nor for a beautiful girl for a student of grade three. My heart skips a beat, and after a second skipped another and then simply started skipping its beats irregularly without any apparent reason and I got afraid what is going on inside me. Within ten minutes, an intense piercing pain developed in my chest and I cried so loudly that every person in my school got afraid. I fainted with intense pain and immediately admitted to the District Hospital.

It is now apparent that there was something wrong with my chest. Doctors kept visiting me in my hospital bed. Every other doctor took me to X-Ray room and very keenly examine my chest on fluorescent screen for unusually longer time. Strangely, the pain never occurred again and I was discharged on fourth day. I was given no medication, but thereafter, every one including the physical training instructor who has the habit to beat me severely every time when I fail to run along with other students of the class during games period started behaving politely with me. Equally strangely he had stopped calling me Khaye-ke-patur-david (Lazy Sam). However, my fellow students never stopped me calling that name.

In my home too, my parents and siblings became too polite and helping with me. I was wandering all the time whether it is related to pain in my heart. Later, after a great spell of time, I came to know that my heart had too many complications by berth, a condition called CHD, the congenital heart disease.